Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
What is a Feeder?
Overhead lines or cables which are used to distribute the load to the
customers. They interconnect the distribution substations
What Is Fault?
A fault is defined as defect in electrical systems due to which current is
directed away from its intended path.
Classification of faults
Faults can be broadly classified into two main areas which have
been designated as
Active faults
Passive faults
Active Faults
The active fault is when actual current flows from one phase conductor to
another (phase-to-phase), or alternatively from one phase conductor to earth.
This type of fault can also be further classified into two areas
Solid Fault
Incipient Fault
Solid Faults
The solid fault occurs as a result of an immediate complete breakdown of
insulation as would happen.
In these circumstances the fault current would be very high resulting in an
electrical explosion.
This type of fault must be cleared as quickly as possible, otherwise there
will be:
Increased damage at fault location
Danger of igniting combustible gas in hazardous areas
Increased probability of faults spreading to healthy phases
Incipient Fault
The incipient fault is a fault that starts as a small thing and gets developed
into catastrophic failure.
Some partial discharge in a void in the insulation over an extended period
can burn away adjacent insulation, eventually spreading further and
developing into a
solid fault.
Passive Faults
Passive faults are not real faults in the true sense of the word, but are
rather conditions that are stressing the system beyond its design capacity,
so that ultimately active faults will occur. Typical examples are:
Overloading leading to over heating of insulation
Overvoltage
Under frequency
Power swings
Types of protection
The need to analyze protection schemes has resulted in the development
of protection coordination programs.
Protection schemes can be divided into two major groupings:
Unit schemes
Non-unit schemes
Earth fault current is always less than phase fault current in magnitude.
Therefore, relay connected for earth fault protection is different from those
for phase to phase fault protection.
In this system time setting time setting of a relay is so adjusted that farther
the relay from the generating system lesser the time of operation
In the event of fault occurring the protecting device will select the faulty
feeder and isolate it while other instantly assumes increased load.
IDMT Relay
In time graded protections IDMT (Inverse definite minimum time) relays are
used.
As the name implies, it is a relay monitoring the current, and has inverse
characteristics with respect to the currents being monitored.
This relay is without doubt one of the most popular relays used on mediumand low- voltage systems for many years, and modern digital relays
characteristics are still mainly based on the torque characteristic of this type of
relay.
IDMT relay
It is based on the fact that short circuit current along the length of protected
length of the circuit decreases with increase in distance between the supply
end and the fault point.
If the relays are set to operate at a progressively higher current towards the
supply end of the line then the drawback of the long time delays occurring
in the graded time lag system can be partially overcome.
Basic
Basic principle
The basic principle of distance protection involves the division of the
voltage at the relaying point by the measured current.
The apparent impedance so calculated is compared with the reach point
impedance.
If the measured impedance is less than the reach point impedance, it is
assumed that a fault exists on the line between the relay and the reach
point.
Under healthy conditions, the voltage will be high (i.e. at full-rated level),
whilst the current will be low thereby balancing the beam, and restraining it so
that the contacts remain open.
Under fault conditions, the voltage collapses and the current increase
dramatically, causing the beam to unbalance and close the contacts.
Zone 2
second zone is requires in order to provide primary protection to
remaining 10 to 20% of the line and a cover up to 50% of the
next line section.
The operating time of this zone is delayed so as to be selective
with zone 1.
Back-up Protection
It is necessary to provide additional protection to ensure isolation of the fault
when the main protection fails to function correctly.
The fault is outside the zones of the main protection and can only be cleared by
the separate back-up protection.
Back-up protection must be time delayed to allow for the selective isolation of
the fault by the main or unit protection.
Differential protection
Differential protection, as its name implies, compares the currents entering
and leaving the protected zone and operates when the differential between
these currents exceeds a pre-determined magnitude.
This type of protection can be divided into two types, namely
Balanced current
Balanced voltage
The relay is connected across the midpoint thus the voltage across the
relay is theoretically nil, therefore no current through the relay and hence
no operation for any faults outside the protected zone.
Voltages produced by the secondary currents are equal and opposite; thus
no currents flow in the pilots or relays, hence stable on through-fault
conditions. Under internal fault conditions relays will operate.
It works on the principle that current entering one end of the feeder at
any instant equals the current leaving the feeder.
The end which is far from the fault cannot discern any changes in the
phase of fault current and the closer end sees a sharp, almost 180 change in
the phase current.
Under normal conditions, load currents and external fault currents can be
arranged to be exactly out of phase but in case of internal faults the currents
become in phase.